Saturday I accomplished a feat that was never a personal goal I had set out to attain. I climbed a mountain over 10,000 feet...10,064 ft to be precise. My friend, Marcie, is headed to Ethiopia in a little over a week for a 2 year assignment to do similar work that I did there, but in a different region. So for a last harrah, she suggested that we hike Mt. Baldy. I had heard of Mt. Baldy, and knew that it was one of the tallest mountains in the area, but had NO idea what I was getting into.
Marcie, her cousin Reba, and I set out at 8:30am and began climbing a lovely trail that followed a small creek in the well-shaded ravine. Ah, serene beauty as we began our leisurely ascent. Then we moved out into the daylight, climbing steeper switchbacks through a burned area of the mountainside with mostly scrub vegetation. Not as lovely, and not as leisurely. This was beginning to get strenuous, but I thought it probably wouldn't last much longer. Hah. I was wrong. The next section was pretty much straight uphill through boulders and some pine trees. A much harsher climate, and we admired the conditions these determined trees and sparse vegetation survive to exist there. Right before the boulders, Reba informed us that the boulders were about halfway to the top! At this stage, my body is telling me it's had enough. But my head said, you've come this far...keep trudging. Past the boulders we tramped up through some trees and then enter a barren land that appeared like what I imagine the surface of the moon to look. Here we passed some hikers descending who encouraged us that it was only another 45 minutes. This was exactly the encouragement I needed to push onward. About that stage, the summit was in sight. And we made it!! Mount Baldy is like its name describes - a barren land, generally quite windy. But the view was spectacular!
To be honest, the greatest part was the sense of accomplishment of having reached the top! This was augmented by other hikers at the peak commending us for taking the longer trail. We had taken the longer trail?? Didn't know there were shorter routes. We were hard-core!! They asked if we were training for Whitney or some other big mountain. Pretty comical considering that morning I had no clue what I was getting myself into! But at the end of the day, I can report that we climbed 6,000 feet from base to summit, 12 miles round-trip! Not sure I'll be doing a hike like that again in the near future, but I learned a lot about the power of mind over matter. Mental fortitude (meaning repeating Philippians 4:13 over and over again) got me to the top.
